Paul Krugman: People don't see much difference between Obama's approach to the deficit and GOP

[Better Believe It]

The Forgotten Millions
By PAUL KRUGMAN
March 17, 2011

So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

Yet polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit. So it’s quite remarkable that inside the Beltway, it’s just the opposite. Yet the obsession with spending cuts flourishes all the same — unchallenged, it must be said, by the White House.

I still don’t know why the Obama administration was so quick to accept defeat in the war of ideas, but the fact is that it surrendered very early in the game. In early 2009, John Boehner, now the speaker of the House, was widely and rightly mocked for declaring that since families were suffering, the government should tighten its own belt. That’s Herbert Hoover economics, and it’s as wrong now as it was in the 1930s. But, in the 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama adopted exactly the same metaphor and began using it incessantly.

And earlier this week, the White House budget director declared: “There is an agreement that we should be reducing spending,” suggesting that his only quarrel with Republicans is over whether we should be cutting taxes, too. No wonder, then, that according to a new Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Americans see “not much difference” between Mr. Obama’s approach to the deficit and that of Republicans.

Read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18krugman.html?_r=1

[Blue Owl]

1. More cuts to the poor! More cuts to the needy!

More tax breaks for the rich! More tax breaks for the corporations!

Hmmm, that is a familiar tune...

[yurbud]

2. Obama reminds me of an old cartoon of Barry Goldwater watching TV report of LBJ bombing Vietnam

and saying, ''He's doing what I would have done--but I would have enjoyed it more!''

Obama's constant capitulation to right makes me wonder why we even bother with the pretense of elections.

[polichick]

3. "why the Obama administration was so quick to accept defeat in the war of ideas"

That's the big question - why did they surrender in the war of ideas?

[bahrbearian]

4. That was the Idea,,, fake left, go right,

[polichick]

5. So this prez is a great big fraud?

[FiveGoodMen]

14. Probably the most damaging fraud this country has suffered

We were on life support under Bush, finally decided to change course, and were then hoodwinked by an infiltrator (infil-traitor?) from the other side.

He may well be the final nail in America's coffin.

[indepat]

18. You've had the courage to put in writing what nattering nabobs of negativism

like this bunny could only wonder if such were really going down. For the sake of our country, may you have mis-read the tea leaves. :patriot:

[FiveGoodMen]

19. I hope I'm wrong, too.

But I don't hold out MUCH hope.

[TBF]

36. Nope, he is doing exactly what the capitalists hired him to do.

The real question is why we don't take on the capitalists directly (via protests and general strikes) and usher in a new economic system.

[yodermon]

8. he's still faking right, and drawing out/exposing the crazies in the process.

he'll go left in his 2nd term.

[leftstreet]

9. "he'll go left in his second term" By then, what will "left" look like?

:shrug:

[rfranklin]

13. Left will be outer Siberia...

Nope, can't go there...to far out.

[Better Believe It]

10. So President Obama will go to the right for two more years and will go left in 2013?

That'll work .... for the rich.

[grahamhgreen]

31. He aint faking.

[markpkessinger]

33. Back to 11 dimensional chess, are we? n/t

[Donnachaidh]

39. and pigs will fly too.

:eyes:

[CrispyQ]

42. No matter how many times I read that, it still makes me laugh.

:rofl:

[corpseratemedia]

6. Why do you want to be compared throughout history with being akin to Hoover?

Republican policies that dinos also adopted continue to hurt the economy and employment

[TacticalPeek]

7. The rich are too poor.

And the poor are too rich.


And our rulers are fixing that.

[CrispyQ]

44. That would make an excellent bumper sticker!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[marginlized]

11. 16% low or no employment = new normal n/t

[slay]

12. That's because there's not

Obama is called a "centrist". I call him right-wing authoritarian who has not just accepted the republican world view - he's embraced it. He got soooo many new people fired up and believing his "hope and change" BS back in 08. Ugh. I GUESS Obama is too liberal to be a republican - barely - but he's wayyyyy to conservative to a good Dem leader IMO. This is a real problem.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. "I GUESS Obama is too liberal to be a republican - barely"

He'd fit in with the republicans just fine...

But that's not the role he's playing.

[slay]

16. Yeah

:( Look like I'm going to have to accept the fact that nobody who is actually really good with the best interests of the american people at heart will ever get close to being in the white house - least not the way things are currently.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

17. That's about the size of it.

We now have proof that elections don't matter.

[chill_wind]

24. Oh but elections DO matter- just not when Democrats win them

even BIG, with a WH, both chambers of Congress and a sweeping mandate.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

34. I stand corrected. nt

[sad sally]

20. 400 new billionaires, 46,000,000 on food stamps - what a great country!

[jacquelope]

21. 400 new billionaires, 46 million denied food stamps, that's their end goal n/t

.

[sad sally]

23. You got it right. I'm sure food stamps will be on the

Republican's cut spending list very soon - after all, one certainly can't expect billionaires to pay one more dime of those pesky taxes.

[pschoeb]

40. 400 new billionaires, 46 million without aid, imprisoned for debt crimes and slaving for pennies

in a privately contracted prison.

corrected that for you

[sendero]

22. That's because..

... there is no difference. Not of any substance.

[hifiguy]

25. And ther is no good reason for them to see

a difference that fundamentally does not exist.

[Rex]

26. That is because he compromised his way into the arms of the GOP.

Never EVER a compromise with his left base...so...no surprise here at peoples reactions.

[Better Believe It]

27. Kick

[unkachuck]

28. K&R....n/t

[jannyk]

29. Kick & Rec!

[grahamhgreen]

30. Obama - puppet donkey of the hoarding class

[thanks_imjustlurking]

35. Don't blame him alone.

You can say the same about the vast majority of them. And it's such a bargain for the hoarding class - compare the size of the campaign donations to the size of the bennies they get.

[WillyT]

32. K & R !!!

:kick:

[NorthCarolina]

37. Count me among those 'People' who don't see much difference. nt

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

45. Wheee!

[Zorra]

41. Paul Krugman might make a great president.

Everything I read by him is so accurate and clear.

[xchrom]

43. Recommend